In a bold selection strategy, the English Chess Federation has geared its international budget to give priority to sending the strongest possible team to next month's European Championship in Warsaw.

Michael Adams, Luke McShane, Nigel Short, Gawain Jones and David Howell are the chosen playing quintet, with Peter Wells as manager. Their average rating is a high 2683, a level which probably only Russia and Ukraine can significantly better.

Adams, 41, is the current world No10. He and Short, 48, are former world title finalists while Jones, 25, and Howell, 22, are the latest two British champions. Depending on who plays in rival squads, England is likely to be seeded between No6 and No12.

McShane's inclusion is the standout selection, and a direct result of the new ECF policy. The city trader, 29, competes rarely, but his impressive play in the annual London Classic and his bravura performance against the world elite in the 2012 Tal Memorial in Moscow makes him the world's top amateur.

On paper Russia has by far the strongest team in Europe, but its squad has had a remarkable and chronic form crisis which has lasted a full decade. From 1957, when the Euroteams started, USSR/Russia won every time till 1997, when England broke the monopoly. Since then, Russia has regularly been the top seed but has won gold only twice. Surprise winners have included the Netherlands and Germany.

Russia's eclipse has been even more marked in the biennial 150-nation Olympiad which USSR/Russia won every time from 1980 to 2002. Since then, its team has failed to capture a single gold, while tiny Armenia, where chess is a national passion, has won three Olympiads and its teams have returned to Yerevan in the presidential jet to a hero's welcome.

Can the same scenario recur in Warsaw? The Russian elite are preparing seriously at the current national super-championship, and will also attend a special training camp.

The world No3, Vlad Kramnik, won this tactical game in the first round, but it had more than a whiff of unsoundness as he sacrificed a full rook. It only worked when his opponent, a novice at elite level, erred on successive turns, missing a win by 19...Ba8! and a draw by 20...Qe7! Even Kramnik's final move was less precise than 26 Rc1! but it still induced resignation.

3327 Two turns before the diagram White's f6 pawn was at e5 and Black had a pawn at f7. Black's next turn was f7-f5, when instead of e5xf6 en passant reaching the diagram, White could play e7-e8Q mate.